Topic one is about the structure of the executive in the Russian Federation.
Executive power in Russia is exercised by government,
federal ministries, and different executive bodies.
You can see the structure on the slide.
Currently, there are 21 ministries in Russia,
15 independent federal services and agencies,
and every ministry has
different agencies and services that are subordinated to the ministries.
Such federal agencies are 38.
Some ministries and services are under control of the President.
Some of them under control of the Prime Minister and the government.
The Russian government is at the top of the executive power.
Russian name for the government in Russia is
Council of the Ministers or Soviet of the Ministers.
The government, you can see the structure of the government at the slide,
consist of the Prime Minister,
his nine deputies, and 22 federal ministers.
One minister is without portfolio.
Government operational body is Presidium of the council.
The Presidium fulfill two main functions: it sets the agenda for
the government and it decides some urgent problems and issues.
The Prime Minister, head of the government,
is appointed by the President with the consent of the State Duma.
In Russia, there is no written rule the Prime Minister must
be the representative of political party.
In 90s, in Russia,
even leader of the party that had lost the campaign or
a technocratic nominee could be the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
However, in the last decades,
the situation some changed,
and written rule was maintained in one way or another.
The current head of the government, Dmitry Medvedev,
is the chair of the biggest party in Russia, United Russia.
This party occupy the large position in the State Duma,
lower chamber of the Russian Federation.
About 80% of the seats belong to this party.
The structure of executive power in
Russian Federation is determined by the President of the Russian Federation.
He also appoint Deputy Prime Minister and federal ministers.
It is necessary to stress some specific characteristics of the Russian government.
Firstly, the government is the highest executive branch in the Russian Federation.
This means that government policy must
be implemented all levels of the federal executive.
Second, the government is collective body of the executive, that is,
its decisions and orders are taken collectively at the meetings of
the governments or as agreed by the members of
the government in accordance with the special rules.
Third position is, the government is formed not on a party list.
And fourth, the government has double accountability.
Government is accountable before the President of
the Russian Federation who forms the government and can dismiss it.
And government is responsible before the State Duma.
State Duma gives consent at the appointment of the Prime Minister.
State Duma has annual reports of the government.
And State Duma may express distrust to the government.
What is the role of the President in this system?
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation,
the President does not belong to any branch of the power in Russia.
Rather, he provides and presides over all branches of the power in Russia.
But his influence on the executive power is substantial.
His general functions are to protect the sovereignty of the state,
independence, and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.
He ensure their coordinated functioning and interaction of people, public authorities.
The President has the right of
legislative initiative and address annually the State Duma.
But the President
Play a significant role in the executive also.
It is important to note that the president of the Russian Federation,
who is not formally the head of the government,
determines the main directions of the public policy in Russia.
He could be Chair at the meeting of the government in the Russian Federation.
Under his control, we could find
the main and very important ministries in the Russian Federation;
the ministries which responsible for defense, security,
international affairs, justice, foreign affairs,
prevention of emergency situations.
He appoints with the consent of the State Duma,
the prime minister, and upon the proposal of the latter,
the members of government.
He has right to preside at the meetings of the government.
All this power suggest that the president has the right to
actively influence on the work of the executive power.
Often, such a level of authority of head of the state
is attributed to the system of super-presidency in the country.
But what about the government in this situation?
Often, the Russian government plays not
political but technical role in the fulfillment of
the functions and in the implementation of public policy.
The government is provided by
the constitutional principles to determine the activities of public authority in Russia.
This is supremacy of the Constitution and federal law.
Democracy, federalism, responsibility, separation of power,
publicity under the protection of human rights and freedom.
Russian government performs different functions.
But in this direction,
Russian government is not differentiated from the other governments in other countries.
But I would like to stress that Russian government has
a legislative initiative and actively submits bill to the State Duma,
up to the 80 percent of the bills in the State Duma are government bills.
What about political construction of the Russian government?
Politically, contemporary Russian government consist of three main group.
I will use classification adopted in Russia of course.
First group, this is the liberals.
They mostly belong to
the economic and financial sectors of the government except maybe military industry.
Second group, conservatives.
They hold position in military office,
law enforcement officers, cultural and educational ministries.
And third group, this is centrist.
They hold position inside branches of the executive as foreign affairs,
heath care, open government, sports, regional governance.
Russian government maintain its activity through
the implementation of four main types of the policy documents.
You can see these types of the documents at the slide.
In the center are the state program of the government.
State program is a system of measures and instruments of
public policy that ensure the achievement of priorities in public policy.
There is a special portal of state program.
It's comprehensively monitors the implementation of this program,
coordinate the activities of different ministries and agencies and currently,
there are 42 state programs in Russia.
Second policy documents are the presidential decree.
Following the inauguration in May 2012,
President Vladimir Putin has issued 11 decrees defining
the main directions of public policy in various areas and spheres of life in Russia.
The implementation of this decrees is one
of the main tasks for the contemporary government.
Third document, this is priority projects.
These projects, identify narrow questions
and problems and key problems for public policy in the Russian Federation.
These projects are designed to coordinate the efforts of the government business,
civil society to address the most urgent and promising tasks.
And last point is road maps.
Road maps are actions plan within
the framework of special national entrepreneurial initiative.
And these road maps must improve the investment climate in
Russia and the implementation on different tasks
for improving all business climate in Russian Federation.
There are 12 road maps in Russia.
For example, road map development of
competition and improvement of anti-monopoly policy in Russia.
Second road map, improving the availability of energy infrastructure in Russia.